A special Interview with Meyer Assoulin, Owner and Manager of Maurice Fine Jewelry, New York.

Next weekend I will make an overview of the European market towards Christmas, with interviews of the leading jewelry retailers in Europe.

A special post written by Steven Silverstein, CEO IDI New York.
 
The holiday season has just kicked off and the industry is hoping for a recovery in diamond and jewelry sales. Meyer Assoulin, Owner and Manager of Maurice Fine Jewelry, shares his thoughts and hopes for the ongoing holiday season. 

Q. Some forecasters predict a major recovery, while others forecast flat sales for the holiday season. What are your thoughts?

A. No one can predict the future. However, being that the holiday season is almost upon us, it doesn't appear likely that the industry will rack up sales sufficient to be able to call it a "successful season."

Having said that, I do believe that much of the hype (both in the media and by those professional forecasters) has a lot to do with people's mindset and spending habits. On the one hand, we are living in a very different place to that which existed just 13 months ago.
 
On the other hand, people will always buy gifts for themselves and for those that they love. 
 
While the holiday season is upon us, and while sales may be flat, I believe they will be sufficient to sustain the jewelry industry for another year.

Q. Some experts believe that consumers of luxury jewelry have changed during the recession and they will be more cautious about how they spend discretionary funds in the future. Do you believe this to be true? If so, how can the luxury jewelry market reawaken consumer appetites?

A. The consumers of luxury jewelry have been hard-hit on a few different fronts. Of course they are feeling the effects of the economic downturn (which is more of a crisis than a downturn). Additionally, these consumers are being barraged by the negative reports that appear on a daily basis in the papers and the fear of what is being forecasted has seeped into their psyche.
 
I believe that, in the end, level-headedness will prevail as people come to realize that life has its ups and downs. Consumers will realize that this period will pass and that they will carry on in a new way - adjusting for whatever becomes of their lifestyle. Jewelry will always have a place in all of our lives, much the same as luxury clothing and cars.

The luxury jewelry industry has, in fact, been reacting very positively so far. We have seen some very creative and ingenious ways of designing jewelry with materials that are less expensive than diamonds. Colored semi-precious stones such as Smokey quartz, morganite, and topaz (to name a few) are making appearances in many of the high-end jewelry chain stores and boutiques across the nation, giving the end-user a lower-price alternative to the traditional diamond designs. That is not to say that the end of diamond jewelry is at hand; but the new trends will keep the momentum going until things turn around, while at the same time maintaining consumer satisfaction.

Q. According to some pundits, jewelry retailers are trying to attract jewelry consumers this holiday season by offering more affordable jewelry (including silver jewelry embedded with diamonds, charm bracelets with charms made of glass and crystal rather than, diamonds, gold or platinum), and huge pieces of jewelry made of cheaper materials embedded with less expensive gemstones. Do you think this recession-adjusted jewelry will get people to spend money on less expensive pieces? And if so, how will this affect the sales of high-end, branded jewelry?

A. As I just mentioned, yes, some jewelry retailers are designing their collections to include more-affordable materials that they may not have used in previous years - with some dazzling results.  The jury is out on the short-term effect this will have on high-end branded jewelry lines - but in the long run I am confident that, with time, people will slowly gravitate towards the higher-end jewelry again. In fact, I would be surprised if many higher-end jewelry brands to which you refer will not change their own strategies to accommodate this new reality as soon as possible.

Q. Some people are investing in diamonds these days due to the soaring price of gold and the weak dollar.Do you consider diamonds to be a worthwhile investment?

A. This question reminds me of the soaring price of diamonds, silver and gold that took place in the Mid 80's. Back then - dealers were buying and selling diamonds amongst themselves daily, driving the list-price of a one-carat D-Flawless diamond to $12,000 per carat; silver hit $50.00 an ounce; and gold recorded a high of $800.00 an ounce. Remember: this was 20 years ago. And then.... reality set in and everything came crashing down.
 
Although today's scenario may differ in many respects, one thing remains the same: The inherent scarcity and the enduring value of diamonds - which has maintained itself and has become more evident throughout the years. People have lost confidence in all sectors of investment, except for those things that they can actually hold: namely Diamonds and Gold.

Q. Do you have any practical tips for jewelry and diamond retailers right before the holiday season? What can they do at this stage to promote jewelry sales?

A. I believe the best strategy is for jewelry retailers to listen to what the client is saying. In other words, go with the flow. If it means reorganizing your inventories, then so be it.
Don't be stuck by "what used to be." That was yesterday.

Also, it is paramount that jewelry retailers relay to their clients that they will still be around tomorrow to service them, and that the quality of the merchandise they are selling today will withstand the test of time. 

Maurice Fine Jewelry is known for retail and its custom-design of high-end jewelry, specializing in both classic and contemporary designs.  Assoulin has been serving his elite clientele since 1991, from the flagship store in Manhattan's prestigious Plaza Hotel.

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The Mineral show in Berlin was great. I had to bring you some pictures from the exhibition, so here you go. Most of the pictures are original and were taken by myself. You are more then welcome to check out my Top 30 chart and so express your opinion. Next time I will bring you pictures from diamond exhibition.

1. Cavansite – India

Discovered in 1967 in Malheur County, Oregon, cavansite is a relatively rare mineral. It is polymorphic with the even rarer mineral, pentagonite. It is most frequently found in Poona, India and in the Deccan Traps, a large igneous province.

2. Thomsonite - India

Thomsonite was first identified in material from Scotland in 1820. It is named for the Scottish chemist Thomas Thomson. Nodules of massive thomsonite that display an attractive banded coloring are found along the shore of Lake Superior. Most of these thomsonite nodules and their derived pebbles are less than 0.6 cm (1/4 inch).

3. Pyromorphite – China

Pyromorphite is a mineral species from China. Crystals are common, and have the form of a hexagonal prism terminated by the basal planes, sometimes combined with narrow faces of a hexagonal pyramid. The color of the mineral is usually some bright shade of green, yellow or brown, and the luster is resinous.

4. Opal – Mexico

Australia produces around 97% of the world’s opal. White makes up 60% of the opal productions but cannot be found in all of the opal fields. Crystal opal or pure hydrated silica makes up 30% of the opal produced, 8% is black and only 2% is boulder opal.

5. Ankash – Peru

Ankash is a special mineral is one of a kind. Peru was the only producer of Ankash, but now while the Piriz mine is closed and no longer produces raw materials, the supply of this mineral is limited and exclusive.

6. Calcite – Mexico

Calcite is a common constituent of sedimentary rocks, limestone in particular, much of which is formed from the shells of dead marine organisms. Approximately 10% of sedimentary rock is limestone.

7. Black Tourmaline – Nigeria

Tourmaline is classed as a semi-precious stone and the gem comes in a wide variety of colors, such as black blue, green, red, yellow, pink, brown and multi color – combination of some of those colors.

8. Opal – Ethiopia

9. Amethyst

Amethyst was used as a gemstone by the ancient Egyptians and was largely employed in antiquity for intaglio engraved gems. The Greeks believed amethyst gems could prevent intoxication, while medieval European soldiers wore amethyst amulets as protection in battle. Amethyst is produced in abundance from the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil where it occurs in large geodes within volcanic rocks. It is also found and mined in South Korea. The largest opencast amethyst vein in the world is in Maissau, Lower Austria.

10. Pyrite– Spain

The color of Pyrite has led to the nicknames brass, brazzle and Brazil, primarily used to refer to pyrite found in coal. This mineral's metallic luster and pale-to-normal, brass-yellow hue have earned it the nickname fool's gold due to its resemblance to gold.

30. Onyx Marble – Pakistan

One could say that the term "Electronic Commerce" (e-commerce) was first coined approximately 14 years ago, with the launch of the international American commerce juggernaut eBay.

But while eBay surely did bring about the change, the first company that allowed purchases through the Internet was actually Pizza Hut, via its Internet website in 1994. In the early days of the Internet era, who would have imagined that in such short a timeframe, e-commerce would be the latest thing in describing globalization. In the U.S. alone, e-commerce has reached an annual yield of 204 billion dollars, a rise of 17% compared to 2007.Who would want to buy a diamond ring, a diamond bracelet, diamonds in bulk or even raw diamonds through the Internet? With unclear security procedures and policies and a constant fear of identity theft or untrustworthy merchants that might not deliver the goods, we all approached the e-commerce sites with certain fears. With the willingness of credit card companies and the launch of accompanying security services such as PayPal, e-commerce has become obvious and renewed the international commerce arena.

In one of my recent posts that I wrote and dedicated to China, I wrote about the growing diamond and jewelry market in the country, which is climbing alongside an aggressive rise in local supply and demand. The Chinese market is destined to surpass the Japanese market soon, with it being the second largest diamond and jewelry market in the world following the U.S. Recently, significant letters have been signed between the Israeli diamond industry and the local industry in Panyu, China.

The first Chinese version for electronic commerce between businesses (B2B), Alibaba.com, has become a showcase of merchandise manufactured in China and in Asia for wholesalers and retailers in these countries and around the world. The company has won several prizes and its worth stands at almost 100 billion dollars – more than 3 times that of eBay. Now it looks as though the international e-commerce arena is undergoing an additional facelift and perhaps a new revolution: the e-commerce site TaoBao, intended for the Chinese market.

Robin Niu, a top cosmetician and celebrity in China, has decided to promote her new cream though the e-commerce site TaoBao, a part of the Alibaba.com group. The launch of the product on the Internet was done following 4 years of research and since September, more than 1,000 bottles of the Jing Chang cream have been sold through Nius' flagship store in the mall, the business-consumer platform TaoBao, which went up on the Internet in April this year. According to Niu, "the market price of the new cream should be around 660 Yuan (87.89 dollar) per bottle, but the cream sells on the site for only about 320 Yuan. All of the profits from selling the new cream will be transferred to the Chinese Red Cross and at the same time I will be able to supply quality products to all of my fans who supported me throughout the years”.

TaoBao's commercial for Christmas and the holiday season

Daniel Zhang, financial assistant director general for TaoBao, says that approximately 100 million customers are registered on the site and that it competes head-to-head with the American public sales juggernaut eBay. According to him, "we can know what the customers prefer and what their shopping habits are via the information that the site supplies every day. The word "Niu" is among the more popular words in the sites’ search engine, a fact which reflects the great favor that the customers hold towards Robin as well as her market potential".

Zhang added that businesspersons such as Niu can receive quick reedback from the sites about their sales, in order to change and accommodate their products and every other aspect of the marketing process. Zhang also referred to the global recession and said that it hurt businesses and consumers. “In order to deal with the “economic winter”, many corporations chose TaoBao in order to maximize their profits, in a time when consumers are looking to buy products for cheaper prices”, he added.  TaoBao can save businesses up to 20% of the costs of establishing marketing and distribution lines as well as about 20% of their operational sales costs. In the last year, many international brands such as HP, Lenovo, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and Disney have opened up flagship stores on the website, where more than 1,000 different entrepreneurs are active within it. Uniglo, the retail giant from Japan which sells cheap Kashmir sweaters, earned 300,000 Yuan on its first operational day on TaoBao in April 2008, and its sales throughout the first year of site operation have reached about 150 million Yuan.

The sales of worldwide computer giants Dell and Lenovo reach about 2 million Yuan each this April. “We have a customer base of more than 100 million users, which many businesses can reach to. One does not need to spend much money searching for sales and advertisement channels, but simply needs to get the consumers to know that your product is here on TaoBao - and they will reach it themselves", he said. In the first half of the year, the TaoBao website reported a sales extent equal to nearly 80.9 billion Yuan, almost twice the overall sales last year.

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